F 

S 
I.M533 




vms. 



M^. 















i^'ii^i/ 









x^^^. 



"-^-^ 



. \ S ^ ^^ ' / 






















■< * 



.^•^ ^"^^ 




^ ^ -V -^ xV ■; 










^oo 



° C,V 



^0' 



C> 

"t '^i isl -A ■" (^ y. 




--acsssaute...^. 



^/nc 



> ^ I'l > w^ 




v\ j 



I II'' 



/ 



fiiiiSj?'^^ 



1 !siMI>ir 




Glimpses of New York 



Glimpses of New York 

An Illustrated Handbook of the City, 
together with Notes on the Electric 
Industry therein and thereabout 



Compiled and Edited by 

The New York Edison Company 



S 



;^6^ 



:?> 



Copyright, 191 1, by 
The New York Edison Company 



CI.A289327 



To the members of the National Electric Light 
Association, in convention assembled, May 30, 191 1, 
this little Edison Baedeker of New York is respect- 
fully dedicated. 

In it, we shall try to show you our city — to us 
the most fascinating in the world. We love its sky- 
scrapers and its tenements, its high finance and its 
subw^ays, its fitful strivings after the good and the 
beautiful. The Great White Way and the little 
side streets, the polyglot speech of new peoples that 
throng our streets; splendor, squalor, commercial- 
ism, humanity, these are all New York. 

And if in showing you our city, we can't help 
seeing electricity as the motive power of it all, you 
must pardon us; we are personally prejudiced. 




Liberty Enlightening the World 

Free-handed, our Sister Nation, France, gave her 
to America In eighteen hundred and eighty-six. 

But strange it was, that when the gift arrived, 
no thought had been given to the receiving of it, 
and onh^ through the prompt action of one of the 
city's patriotic newspapers, was the country finally 
awakened to its responsibility. 

So, after twelve years of preparation, this colos- 
sal statue, conceived and designed by Monsieur 
Bartholdi, was unveiled on Bedloe's Island in the 
Harbor of New York. 

Made of copper and steel, it weighs two hundred 
and twenty-five tons and reaches up over three hun- 
dred feet, to where the hand holds a powerful elec- 
tric torch. Battered by many a hundred storms, she 
has stood at the foot of the bay for more than 
twenty years — and still is unafraid ! She is watch- 
ing, guarding new Children of the Republic as they 
come in from overseas. 

I 




The North River water front 




From the Jersey Shore 




The Singer Building towering over lower New York 




^sr 



■'-^ 



mmtmmm^fmm.t'^. 



1«i«-l ^ . _ -^ ..i:?^ ^ ,- -fesi^ 



.B^i. 



- ..^-4^' 



^ ': 




^ 



-I. 








»'' 



i.. 







Up-townTrom the Jersey Shore. Times Tower and the Metropolitan 
are the highest peaks 




Pi^^iW^^ite;if.-^>itf^^^ 



Singer and City Investment Buildings from the East River 




Three East River Bridges 




Ellis Island 



Pause for a space, and watch the fascinating sight 
of a nation growing at the rate of three thousand 
people a day ! 

On this small Island, are gathered up the threads 
of many-tongued humanity, from all the far cor- 
ners of the Earth. 

It Is the melting-pot of the Republic ; where every 
possible ingredient is fused Into the larger metal of 
an American Citizen. 

Pathos and Laughter, Sorrow and Gay Inconse- 
quence, go trustfully together, seeking, with up- 
turned faces, a new home, under the protecting arm 
of the great figure of Liberty. 




Governors Island 
Governors Island is one of the least known spots 
in the vicinity of New York. Having been for up- 
wards of a century a military post, promiscuous vis- 
iting has not been encouraged and as a consequence 
few people are familiar with this beautiful Island, 
low lying just inside the gateway of our harbor. 

The Island was ceded by the State of New York 
to the United States Government on condition that 
it be always kept as a military post. The exact date 
of this cession is somewhat clouded, but it was very 
early in the history of the republic, for there is a 
record of the building of a rally port and fort prior 
to 1800. This was named and is still called Fort 
Jay, after that patriotic American statesman who 
was the first chief justice of the supreme court of 
the United States. 



Today the Island is used as headquarters for the 
Atlantic Division of the United States Army and of 
the Department of the East. In addition to the 
officers and their families, who live permanently 
there, it is occupied by four army companies and a 
military band, the total population averaging some- 
thing like 400, exclusive of the military prisoners 
who are confined in Castle William, the old-fash- 
ioned round-tower fortress at the northwest corner 
of the Island. The number of these prisoners va- 
ries; at present there are about three hundred. 

Strange as it may seem, this community with its 
captains and colonels and generals, its pretty villa 
houses, its many public buildings and barracks, 
lying almost within a stone's throw of the great 
metropolis of America in the Twentieth Century, 
up till a few months ago was compelled to rely for 
its artificial illumination entirely upon the old-fash- 
ioned kerosene lamp. When General Chaffee was 
in the Philippines he found the military posts there 
lighted by electricity. Upon his return the contrast 
between the archaic kerosene lighting of Governors 
Island and the up-to-date methods in the antipodes 
struck him as so different from what might reason- 
ably be expected as to be actually ridiculous. 

The results of an investigation then set on foot 
by the General was a contract made by the United 
States Government with the Brooklyn Edison Com- 
pany to supply the Island. All of the buildings as 
well as the streets are now lighted by electricity. 



South Street 

"See the shaking funnels roar, with the Peter at the fore, 
And the fenders grind and heave. 

And the derricks clack and grate, as the tackle hooks the crate. 
And the fall-rope whines through the sheave!" 



-Where ships from all the seas come in ! 

Vagrant wind-jammers, from 
up and down the coast; high- 
sided whalers; tousled tramps, 
just in from 'round the Horn, 
lie side by side along the 
wharves. The aristocrats of 
the high-seas find their sleek 
sides under old and battered 
bowsprits. 

Donkey-engines stutter and 
pant under cover of white- 
plumed steam-jets; hoarse 
voices call and answer in 
strange tongues; reef-points 
patter on taut-hung canvas, 
and a boatswain's whistle pipes 
shrill above the tumult! 

There is an ineffable smell of 
tar and new paint ; of sun- 
warmed varnish, and crusted 
sea-salt, hanging over these 
wanderers from many a distant 
harbour-bar, across ten thou- 
sand leagues of open sea. 




dm 



"^"^ 








13 



Battery Park 

While America may not yet be a nation of ruins, 
as some of her brethren across the water complain, 
still, the places which hold memories of her early 
history, are not among those which can easily be 
forgotten. Conspicuous, around the little park of 
Bowling Green, which may truly be called the cra- 
dle of the present tremendous city, is the " Custom 
House of the Port of New York," where three 
quarters of the duties of the country are collected; 
the United States Barge Office and the Aquarium. 

In this ancient building, which echoed to the 
songs of Jenny Lind on her first appearance in 
America, may now be seen, some of the strangest 
and rarest denizens of the deep, gathered out of 
many seas. 

From the vexed Bermudas, have been brought the 
parrot-fish, with its strange shape and startling col- 



Wy^! 




14 



ors; from other waters, sea-cows and sea-elephants, 
trumpet-fish and splashing seals. The creatures of 
the deeps are laid before one, from giant, green- 
backed turtles to delicate, palpitating sea anemones, 
which close and fade at a passing shadow. 




Fraunces Tavern 



Since Nineteen hundred and four, nearly two 
hundred years after it had been built for the home 
of some of the great Dutch families, the Sons of 
the Revolution have shielded this relic of Colonial 
New York from the ruthless hand of progress. 

In Seventeen hundred and sixty-two, it met what 
no doubt was then called its downfall, for swarthy 
Sam Fraunces, newly arrived from the West Indies, 
opened It under the Sign of Queen Charlotte, as 
" The Queen's Head Tavern." 



Like many human catastrophies, this sliding 
downward in its social scale, finally raised the build- 
ing to the pinnacle of fame and proved its passport 
through the ages, to stand, safeguarded and beloved, 
as long as one stone may rest upon another. There 
in the Long Room, on the second floor, the seeds 
of Liberty sprouted when the famous Stamp Act 
first heard itself speak, and there also, no doubt, the 
greatest of all " Tea Parties " and its bearings was 
discussed. 

Early in December, Seventeen hundred and 
eighty-three a traveler on horseback splashed up the 
muddy street to the Tavern door. He had ordered 
dinner for " one hundred Generals, and Men of 
Distinction " who had given him eight years of most 
devoted and desperate service. 

His name w^as George Washington, and the elo- 
quence of his Farewell Address that evening to his 
Officers, left no one able to speak, and they parted 
in silence. 

" — With a heart full of love and gratitude, I 
now take leave of you." 

The toast of the evening, given for the first time 
in History was those five magic words which today 
cause nearly one hundred million hearts to throb 
wherever they may hear it, " The United States of 
America! " 



i6 




17 



Curb Exchange 
Fifty-nine on a hundred gold! Fifty-nine on 



a 



"Taken! Close that up Jimmy — quick!" 

And, waving at a window across the street, 
Jimmy lifts a hoarse cry above the tumult, while 
his fingers flash a few quick signals. The deal is 
closed! Five hundred shares have been sold "on 
the New York curb " and bought in the same man- 
ner and at almost the same time in Boston, three 
hundred miles away. 

Every day, from ten to three, about two hundred 
yards of Broad Street is jammed with an excited 
multitude, buying and selling unlisted securities. 

Over the office windows there are sign-boards, 
mounted with a row of electric bulbs, and under 
each of these, a number represents some salesman 
on the curb. Delays are so costly that the differ- 
ent firms have taken this positive method of sig- 
nalling members of their staf¥. 

Years ago, bids were w^ritten on sheets of paper 
and thrown down to the salesman from the office 
windows. But now, during a modern flurry, such 
a method becomes impossible, as the street is often 
lost in a chaos of waving arms and howling voices. 

For this reason, the deaf and dumb alphabet has 
come to hold such complete sway that one may see 
a transaction involving thousands of dollars made 
and closed, simply on the crook of a finger. 



19 



Stock Exchange 

Viewing the floor of the Stock Exchange from 
the visitors' gallery, it is sometimes difficult to im- 
agine, that there must be method in the mad tur- 
moil below. Some six or seven hundred men, are 
wildly waving, in a frenzy to make themselves 
heard. 

"One thousand steel, one eighth! — five thou- 
sand, one fourth — ! " Hats are knocked off; 
clothes disheveled, and still the strange calls and 
gestures continue, as white numbers appear and dis- 
appear on a huge blackboard. At times, the like- 
ness of it all, to the antics of certain occupants in 
the zoo, becomes so striking as almost to arouse 
laughter. 

Yet, when it is realized, that many of these same 
gestures, involve millions of dollars, a new respect 
is created for a body of men, whose integrity is so 
high, that dealings of such magnitude may be done 
on honor alone. 

The privilege of doing business upon the floor of 
this building, which is a model one for its purpose, 
is valued at nearly one hundred thousand dollars. 

In the lunch room upstairs, sometimes planning 
a new campaign with their brokers, while eating a 
frugal meal, may be seen those giants of the Ex- 
change, whose operations in the market are of such 
magnitude as to make them always of interest to 
the whole financial world. 



Wall Street 

To many, Wall Street is but a name — and not 
one to conjure with at that. However, if one will 
but review its stirring history and people it, in 
imagination, with the figures of men who have 
loomed colossal in the annals of world-wide Fi- 
nance, this short, narrow canyon, holds more of 
interest than perhaps any other street on the face of 
the globe. 

Stand, for a moment, on the steps of the Sub- 
Treasury, and let the thrill and excitement of this, 
the richest and most powerful section of the world, 
creep into you, as the great loom of Wall Street 
stirs under its shuttle of hurrying messenger boys. 

At every moment, fortunes are being made and 
lost, on this financial battleground, where all the 
panics that have rocked the nation, have been met 
and overcome. 

Yet, it is but one hundred and twenty years since 
the historic figure of Washington stood here while 
he proclaimed the first establishment of our gov- 
ernment. 

The Sub-Treasury itself, holds one in amazement 
at the marvelous accuracy of hand and eye through- 
out all the intricate processes of counting and stor- 
ing the coin of the realm. And outside, trucks filled 
with gold and silver ingots, arrive with so much un- 
concern, that one can hardly realize that this is the 
shimmering metal, for which men have fought and 
died since the Beginning of the Ages. 



23 




24 



Singer Building 

At different times in history treasures have been 
amassed, and always the methods of safeguarding 
them have been devious and intricate. But the days 
of the Pharaohs or Caesars are not those of hurry- 
ing New York. 

The modern treasure — almost beyond man's 
counting — is also placed far underground, — but in 
two steel vaults, which cost two hundred thousand 
dollars, and are today the strongest ever built! 

The rusty key or secret counter-weight has been 
superseded by four electric timelocks, each acting 
independently of one another on the ponderous 
forty-thousand-pound doors, — for chance may not 
figure in guarding the entrance to where has lain 
five hundred million dollars! 

Above these beautifully fitted vaults, is one of the 
most modern of office buildings. Its forty-eight 
electric elevators are in constant telephonic com- 
munication with the ground floor, besides having 
their position alw^ays indicated by means of an elec- 
tric indicator-board placed in front of the " starter." 

The unusual illumination of the tower at night, 
which has made it famous, is accomplished by 
twenty-nine eighteen-inch projectors, besides one of 
thirty inches, the duplicate of which is used at 
Sandy Hook, and is capable of throwing a beam of 
light up in the air to be visible for sixty miles. 

The combined illumination from these projectors 
is estimated at the enormous figure of three and 
one-half million candle power. 

25 



World Building 

Somebody once said that a city is only as good 
as its newspapers, and while this may be far from 
true, certainly no one will deny that an insight into 
the work of a great organization, which spends a 
million and a quarter dollars a year, gathering 
news, is inspiring to say the least. 

From the dome, on a clear day, the horizon 
stretches away twenty miles distant, while in the 
near foreground stand some of the most beautiful 
and trem.endous monuments of engineering skill ever 
erected. The Metropolitan Tower; the Brooklyn 
Bridge; the Singer Building; the East River Bridge; 
the Pennsylvania Terminal. 

Throughout the fifteen stories below the dome, 
the whirl of life in a city of nearly five mil- 
lion inhabitants is being recorded, and the rushing, 
rumbling sound of it all makes the building seem 
like a thing alive. 

Under the green-hued glare of the Cooper-Hew- 
itt lights a great newspaper is forever in the throes 
of the latest edition, — printing one thousand tons 
of paper a week! 

Two thousand people are at work — trying to do 
something just a little quicker than it was ever done 
before. 

The smoking, pungent atmosphere of the photo- 
engraving rooms, is perpetually agleam with the 
fitful flicker of a fifty thousand candle power print- 
ing-lamp; incessant, the rattling clamor of fifty-six 
linotypes fills the long composing room, while far 
27 



downstairs, ponderous electric presses, — the largest 
ever built, — scream and sob under the feverish pres- 
sure of nine hundred thousand copies an hour. 

Everywhere, there is convulsive haste, — for the 
latest edition is going out! 

Even the fierce light of modern science, can never 
pale the eternal miracle of the single slender wire, 
which leads the power five miles, to turn every cog 
in this throbbing activity where forty thousand 
pounds of molten metal are being shaped into the 
living stories of the day, — " tales of the bad, the 
sad, "and the glad, — the regular quota of news "! 




The Post Office 

Only a short span of one hundred years lies be- 
tween the soap-box nailed to a tree, on the edge 
of the clearing, and the twenty million dollar Post 
Office, in the heart of the greatest metropolis of the 
Western Hemisphere. 

But it is a far call, nevertheless, from the dusty, 
galloping pony-express, to the soughing, clanking 
gurgle of the electricity-driven pneumatic tubes that 
carry the mails deep under the city, to be finally 
distributed by an army of men, among the homes 
of the present generation. 

More than one billion pieces of mail pass through 
this building every year, so that, even with the most 
up-to-date mechanical devices, a force of seven thou- 
sand people is needed to handle them with the quick 
accuracy which modern business methods demand. 

Night and day, a legion of gray-coated men are 
patrolling the streets, making thirty-two separate 
collections and deliveries, from four thousand scat- 
tered letter-boxes. 

A remarkable sight and one which can not be du- 
plicated, even in this interesting branch of Uncle 
Sam's service, is that of sorting the mails. For 
hours at a time, men stand before serried rows of 
narrow pockets and with a deadly accuracy, born 
only of life-time practice, faster almost than the eye 
can follow, they flick letter after letter, sometimes 
to a distance of twenty feet, into the exact pouch, 
which is to take them on their final destination, — 
whether Persia or West Twenty-third Street. 
29 



The age of hand-canceled letters passed away 
forever when an electric " pick-up table " came 
into being. This novel machine will cancel both 
" longs " and " shorts " at the same time. 

When in operation, the envelopes fly through it 
in two unbroken streams, — at the rate of seventy 
thousand an hour. 

Seventy thousand letters an hour — what messages 
of Hope and Grief, of Love and black Despair, flut- 
tering by, swifter even than the thoughts which 
wrote them. 



@^'" 










,^, u^Vu^ ^ ^(M^^, 6*^ 



Cherry Street Playground, underneath the Brooklyn Bridge 



30 




Decayed Gentility Cherry Hill 



31 



Ye Olde Tavern 

Mayhap, since the days of seventeen hundred and 
ninety-seven, its solid oaken fittings with the copper 
nails, have acquired a darker tinge, and the row of 
pewter mugs a few more dents. But, call for a 
measure of musty ale, and it will be of the same 
quality which long ago caused men to stir in their 
sleep when the driver of the lurching stage called 
" Old Tavern,— First Stop! " 

Dim, inviting corners, are tucked away in unex- 
pected places and from some of these, occasionally, 
comes the soft rattle of shaken dice. 

Overhead, racks of long-stemmed, church-warden 
pipes, corn tassels and bundles of flax, help to cast 
misshapen shadows round about. Once within its 
low-hung doors, and the busy murmur of the city 
dies away — the world steps back a hundred years. 



32 



Brooklyn Bridge 

Hanging one hundred and thirty-five feet in the 
air from its stone piers, it swings out over the river 
in a single majestic arc, — this most famous suspen- 
sion bridge in the world ! 

It is anchored at each end in a bed of thirty-five 
thousand cubic feet of solid masonry, and, since 
eighteen hundred and eighty-three, w^hen it was 
finally completed at a cost of fifteen million dol- 
lars, its mile and one eighth of steel and stone has 
safely borne aloft the three hundred and fifteen 
thousand people who pass over it every day. 

A network of transportation lines above and far 
below the river-bed, bind it fast to earth, seeming 
to give its gray aloofness a more human touch. 

At night, from the raised promenade, may be 
seen the distant vagueness of the harbour, the great 
torch of the Statue of Liberty and the busy ship- 
ping on the river. And nearer, a fairy city, tow- 
ered and turreted, stands pricked out in twinkling 
lights against the dark. 





34 



China Town 

Very different it is now, from the days when 
Doyer Street was a black tunnel, w^hich led off 
from the Bowery, behind a single dingy gas-jet. 
For, " them times we could see 'em comin' in — 
but they couldn't see us! " 

True, the Joss-house is still there, under its 
garish, flaunting posters and Hop Wing's chicken 
chow-mien, with yuen sin chi, is just as good as it 
was ten years ago. But the plain-clothes squad, 
the tong feuds and the marvel of the incandescent 
bulb, have driven the old order of things to the 
wall. China-town is being scattered and some of its 
people are taking up new customs, though their 
hearts w^ill never change. Always, they will be the 
same inscrutable, slant-eyed, shuffling men, who had 
an art and a religion that was old, three thousand 
years before America was born. 

Yes, the old, true China-town has passed away! 
Woo Ling-soo claims that it went w^ith the last of 
the Coolie-houses on Donivan's Lane — and Woo 
Ling-soo knows, for he still carries his queue hung 
down his back and is one of the only three men in 
the city today, who can tell of Donivan's Lane. 

Donivan's Lane, of devious ways and many turn- 
ings; of hidden doors behind steep and crooked 
stairs, — the narrow^ rookerie-bordered path that once 
upon a time was known to open into Mott Street. 



35 




36 



The Bowery 

Men and boys, women and girls, — afloat, drift- 
ing to and fro, on the dark tide of the city's under- 
tow. Every nation yields its flotsam, with the 
argot and the cant phrase from its streets. And 
under the hard lights, gape the ports of the dere- 
licts, — pawn-shops, saloons and lodging-houses, dime 
theatres and more saloons. 

The dreary, tuneless jangle from a dance hall is 
drowned for a moment in the thundering roar of a 
passing elevated, and from down the street comes 
the hollow boom of a Salvation Army drum. 

And nearer, standing very still amid all the play 
of light and shadow, stretches the long line of those 
who have lost hold on the bottom rung. Some of 
them have stood there through five weary hours — ■ 
w^aiting for a cup of coffee, and a bit of longed for 
bread. Hundreds of men, standing shoulder to 
shoulder in the great brotherhood of want! 




37 




38 



Push-Cart Town 

The narrow, sunless streets, are filled with peo- 
ple from a thousand crowded homes. Everywhere, 
six and seven storied brick tenements are crowded 
to the eaves with humanity, for in this part of the 
town, one single square mile holds a quarter of a 
million people. 

And the sights, and the sounds, and the strange 
odors, seem not to belong to hurrying New York, 
but to the outskirts of some of the most ancient 
cities in Europe. 

Below the long line of smoking, flaring torches, 
Jews from every country under the sun, surge to 
and fro, laughing and gesticulating, as they bargain 
for everything from figs and bric-a-brac, to old lace 
and sheet-iron stove-tops. It is the market place of 
the Great East Side — the department store of the 
countless thousands, who know nothing of the city, 
five blocks from their own door. 



.^^ 



te^^ 



if 




39 




**>J -w 



^^r^^ ^ 



40 







J^ 



Syrian Quarter 
Lower West Side 






41 



/ 









ft 

J* i 






An East Side Playground 




A Recreation Pier Concert 
42 



««^^SB«i. 



0^^ ' 



f^^ 



• T>> 







i^Jh- 






'*|/-^i; m¥ 



' ^fi 



; IW^i/-. 






East Side Street. Vendors 






MM. 



r> 







43 



Little Hungary 

Follow the sign of the big electric cross, turn 
into East Houston Street, and there in letters of 
fire is " Little Hungary." 

Little Hungar}^ where more good wine some- 
times seems to leak from the ceiling of the old 
cellar than materializes in the strange, uncanny 
bottles; where the very air is charged with gay fri- 
volity and the brilliant Neapolitan singers are ac- 
companied by the swirling, swinging cadence of 
the Hungarian orchestra. 

It is here that the Ragged Edge Klub is known 
to meet, and it is also here, five j^ears ago, that 
President Roosevelt held the banquet which he had 
promised in the days when he was Police Com- 
missioner. 

Laughter and jest and song ripple easily from 
table to table, while the air is heady with a strange 
aroma which is to be found nowhere else, — for this 
is the heart of Bohemia! 




44 




:-4 







's^: 



^ ^^-'* 
^^&^. 







A Corner in the Syrian Quarter 
Lower West Side 



45 




46 



Francesca's 

A quaint little Italian restaurant, replete with 
the atmosphere of the old Latin Quarter. There is, 
perhaps, not its like to be found anywhere in the 
City. 

From the street, can be seen nothing more than 
a blue placard, bearing the legend " 64." Yet de- 
scend some worn stone steps, duck beneath a dark- 
ened, arching doorway, and one is on the sawdust 
strewn path that leads through the kitchen, out 
into a w^alled court-yard of the restaurant. 

Round about, at intervals, are pictures, painted 
on the wall itself, by hands, some of which are long 
since dust. And in one corner a tree stands half 
imbedded in the masonry. 

There is no orchestra; no carefully harmonized 
light effect and the radiators which do not radiate, 
stand out blatantly against the red brick wall. But 
then, where else may one have pink salad-dressing 
and the joy which comes of correctly deciding the 
great question of '' Banan' or ze apple "? 

Among its kind Francesca's stands unique. It's, 
well, it's, — just Francesca's. 



47 




48 



Washington Arch 

When a nation is very young, its history, while 
perhaps carrying great significance, does not always 
permit of many relics which bear tribute to past 
achievements. 

Realizing this, the people of the United States of 
America caused to be erected, in eighteen hundred 
and eighty-nine, on the Centennial Anniversary of 
Washington's taking the oath of office, a marble 
arch which bears his name. 

The exquisite design of its creamy white stone, 
for all its massive solidity, seems to Idle In dreamy 
gentleness through long summer days against a 
green background of the park. 

Thirty feet w^Ide, it spans Fifth Avenue, and Is 
arched just under the famous carved frieze, at a 
height of seventy-seven feet above the pavement. 

It seems fitting that the one hundred and twenty- 
eight thousand dollars of Its cost was borne by the 
people themselves, for on It are shaped the words 
which closed the Inaugural address from the First 
President of the country. 

" Let us raise a standard to which the wise and 
honest can repair. The event Is In the hands of 
God." 



49 




so 



Sc he ffel- Halle 

*' Ich griisse dich, du stolzes Haus, 

DIch traute ' Scheffel-Halle ' ! " 

It was in this old-time " Bierstube " that was 
forged a great part of the present strong chain of 
good-fellowship between American and German 
New York. 

The fame of its true German dishes; its " Ha- 
sen-Pfeffer " stew with potato-balls; its rare old 
" Culmbacher " beer and Bretzels, has spread far 
indeed. For in that subtle atmosphere of " Gemiith- 
lichkeit " there seems to be a friendly tinge on 
everything, from the iron scroll-w^ork of the en- 
trance to the stained-glass ceiling in the old hall 
itself. 

When the ancient clock, up among the steins 
on the carved oaken mantel of the fire-place, slowly 
chimes that magic hour in which the spirit of the 
poet is supposed to stir abroad, the dim panels il- 
lustrating his many adventures, seem to gather up 
new life. 

And then, just as they have done here every 
evening for more than thirty- years, the four old 
German musicians w^ill bend over their instruments 
for an " Abend-sang." 

" — Fest steht, und treu die Wacht, — die Wacht 
am Rhein! " 



SI 




Washington Irving' s home 
17th Street and Irving Place 



52 



Castle Cave 

Under its smoke-darkened rafters, have been en- 
tertained many a famous person, for nowhere else 
in the city may one have delicacies, such as Mr. 
Bardusch himself broils beside the fragrant hickory- 
wood fire. 

The shining meat-ax hangs against the wall, near 
the piled up hickory, and it catches the golden tints 
in the glow from the hot coals, when they are raked 
out and spread under the sizzling roasts. 

By far, the most unique dish to be found in 
Castle Cave, is oysters on the half-shell, grilled, and 
brought, all steaming, to the table on a platter of 
live coals. 




53 



Metropolitan Tower 

The long, swift rise of an electric express ele- 
vator — forty-four stories without a stop ; two turns 
in a narrow stairway, and one is out on the bal- 
cony of the second tallest structure in the world. 
Within sight lie the homes of one sixteenth of all 
the people in the United States. 

Here, one may toss a penny nearly seven hundred 
feet sheer, down into a pigmy city which has 
dropped so far away that, but for a distant mur- 
mur, it seems to carry on Its work in perpetual 
silence. 

Vast, nebulous, smoke-hung New York, — the land 
that Peter Minuit once bought for twenty-four 
dollars' worth of trinkets! Somewhere, of course, 
steam riveters are thundering as they fling up new 
sky-scrapers; fire-gongs are ringing and whistles 
blowing; crimes and brave deeds are being her- 
alded. But no sound of it save that steady under- 
tone of traffic ever reaches up beyond the sun-gilded 
banners of steam, for at this height even the whim- 
pering winds seem to pause for a moment as if in 
doubt. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the 
tower is the tremendous, electric four-dial clock. It 
is the largest that has yet been built, with a minute 
hand seventeen feet long and weighing half a ton. 

Strange, Indeed, It seems, to hear the old, his- 
toric Cambridge chimes, ring out on the quarter 
hours at a height of nearly fifty floors above the 
sidewalk, and to know that two-hundred-pound elec- 
55 




trie hammers are striking 
them on seven-thousand 
pound bells. 

Within the building, — 
a small city in itself — five 
thousand people are at 
work keeping the rec- 
ords of the biggest life in- 
surance business ever de- 
veloped. 

The walls are made of 
pure Tuckahoe marble 
and exquisitely chased 
bronze. And it took six- 
teen years before they 
were finally in place, — 
on this compeer of the 
distant Tomb of Agra by 
the broad w^hite road to 
Delhi. 



56 




Overlooking Madison Square Park 

57 



The Martha Washington 

Its duphcate is not to be found anywhere, for it 
is the only hotel of its kind in the world. 

This original project was financed by the Wom- 
en's Hotel Corporation, which designed and erected 
it exclusively for women. There are women clerks 
and girl " bell-bojs." 

No matter how unprotected a young girl may be 
who comes alone to town, with " Martha Washing- 
ton " for a chaperon, she is considered as safe as in 
her own home. Not even brothers or fathers may 
stay over-night within its sacred portals or penetrate 
above the parlor floor. 

The four hundred and fifty rooms, accommodate 
six or seven hundred guests, and on the top of its 
twelve stories, there is a fine roof-garden. 

Situated, as the Martha Washington is, in the 
very center of interesting activities, from its door- 
way one might shoot an arrow into several of the 
big women's camps w^ithout stirring. 

The Women's University Club with a member- 
ship list of seven hundred lies close by, and slightly 
farther aw^ay, the head-quarters of the Women's 
Suffrage movement which is now^ over sixty thou- 
sand strong; the Colony Club; the Women's 
Municipal League and the exhibit of the Con- 
sumer's League which demonstrates by means of 
models and photographs, the evils which arise from 
sweat-shop work among the tenements. 



58 




Madison Square Garden from the Park 

59 




6o 



Pennsylvania Terminal 

He stands looking gravely down on the people 
who hurry by, — the people who are too busy even 
to gaze about them on the work to which he gave 
his life. A slender bronze statue of Alexander Cas- 
sat, holding an open book w^ithin one hand. His 
was the vision and the force necessary to carry this 
gigantic project through to its present conclusion. 

It was a long fight and a hard one, but he never 
wavered. Insurmountable difficulties arose; traf- 
fic and organization problems presented themselves 
that had never even been heard of before, and he 
conquered them all — though at what cost to himself 
no one will ever know ! 

In due time he extended the railroad, of w^hich 
he was president, to nine acres of valuable land in 
the heart of New York City. He accomplished the 
ideal for which he had dreamed and striven, — and 
the price of the accomplishment, was one hundred 
and fifty million dollars! 

But far greater than this is the fact that the vis- 
ible result, with its vaulted arches and sweet-sound- 
ing echoes, is a thing of stately beauty from the 
genius of McKim, Meade and White, and one of 
which the city may always well be proud. 



6l 








gS?!'" 






'fr 




^^^r< 






{n 



62 



A Great Retail Business 

It Is very hard, when stepping into this modern 
colossus of the selling world, to realize the years 
of patient, plodding toil which lie beneath It, — the 
hopes and dreams of men who have been planning 
this Ideal of theirs for more than a generation. 

Away back In the early forties, when transporta- 
tion was by wagon and French money was used 
west of the Ohio, Adam GImbel was already a lead- 
ing merchant In the little town of Vincennes, In- 
diana. 

Here, beneath the flaring lanterns In his small 
two story *' Trade Palace," he exchanged, among 
other things, plug tobacco and calico for pelts. 

And this Is a far cry from the most modern of 
great retail stores with Its twenty-seven acres of 
space. Its six thousand employes, Its six million dol- 
lar building, Its thIrty-sIx elevators, one thousand 
telephones, and miles upon miles of electric wiring. 
Yet, throughout all this, there runs a pleasing 
thread of simplicity, — the stately simplicity of solid 
mahogany, white marble, and perfect arrangement. 

Figures carry little meaning when they compass 
such quantities as are beyond human experience, but 
it can be readily seen how the tremendous vastness 
of such an enterprise would be overpowering were 
It not for clever architectural handling of space. 
In this regard the Tea Room stands preeminent. 
Here, the entire population of some New England 



63 



towns might be seated and be far from crowded. 
Still, in some miraculous manner, the impression 
of quiet cosiness remains. 

It is very safe to say that Gimbel's is the last 
whisper in the evolution of the science of selling. 
Rest rooms; silence rooms; a fully equipped hospital 
with a physician and nurse in charge ; a luxurious 
waiting room; concerts of grand opera; all these 
and more, show the fullest realization of the policy 
of making the customer comfortable. 

But greater than all this material growth is the 
stupendous fact that Gimbel's was the first store to 
advertise that its social conscience had awakened. 
Before it opened, there appeared in huge letters, 
with its other advertisements on the outside of the 
building, the pregnant w^ords, 

*' We will not carry either Child Labor or Sweat- 
shop goods! Everything will be Economically as 
well as Physically clean ! " 



4 



64 



Rector's 

And who has not heard of Rector's! 

The salle-a-manger in this Aladdin's palace of 
crimson and marble and gold has the name of be- 
ing among the most beautiful rooms ever designed. 

Rare mosaics of stained glass, paintings and mar- 
bles, sometimes half-hidden behind green palms, all 
lend a subtle, unobtrusive splendor. While two 
great chandeliers hanging near either end, and made 
from thousands of tiny pieces of hand-cut, rosy- 
tinted glass, are forever glowing, a-quiver with 
whimsical lights. 

But it is more interesting to see the place from 
whence emerges that miraculous Filet of Sea-bass 
and the Vol-au-vent which has made this restau- 
rant famous across two continents. 

It presents, with its equipment of every known 
implement, a remarkable scene of well-ordered, 
adroit activity; comparable only to the decks of a 
warship before going into action. For the first 
time in history, French art has been combined with 
American silent speed and efficiency. 

And the result? Ah! — cela se laisse manger! 



65 



I — ^ I — 8 



B 




66 



Canfield's Bronze Door 

The evening, four years ago, when Commissioner 
Jerome swung his ax, — and broke it, — on the fa- 
mous twenty-eight thousand dollar bronze door of 
Canfield's gambling house, was a memorable one 
in the police annals of the city. The marks are 
there yet, — only two tiny gashes — for the hardened 
metal, which, in fifteen hundred and thirty, used to 
guard the wine-cellar of a great palace, is some four 
inches thick. 

What strange scenes, through all the passing 
years, must the playful cherubs, which decorate its 
massive front, have looked upon ! Yet, now that 
the place has become a restaurant, they behold noth- 
ing more startling than a throng of city-dwellers, 
bent on taking dinner upstairs, where the tables are 
set under the most expensive ceiling in New York. 

The famous mahogany railing on the stair-case 
is upheld by many dancing nymphs, each of which 
was carved in different form from a solid block at 
an enormous cost. 

Downstairs, drinks are now served in the same 
room where, formerly, the chips were bought or 
cashed in, and where it is rumored a well-known 
millionaire, one evening, left one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. 



67 



"And Now Let Us Conserve 
Human L i f e " 

The great bound with which the question of " So- 
cial Insurance " sprang into prominence of late, has 
brought the American Museum of Safet}^ within the 
spot-light of public interest. 

This exhibit, includes protecting devices for the 
safeguarding of human life, in almost every field of 
labor, from the turning of a grindstone to the mov- 
ing of a freight train, — yet, unusual and interesting 
as it is now, bewildering, in an array of strange 
appliances, it gives but a conception of how far this 
new movement may some day be carried. 

On one side, the demonstrator is explaining the 
use of a valve-lock which prevents a man who is 
cleaning the inside of a boiler, from being grilled 
alive by someone carelessly turning on the steam. 
Passing on, he picks a can of gasoline from a rack 
and setting fire to it, calmly pours a flaming stream 
from one container to another, in proof of his state- 
ment that this high explosive is now no more dan- 
gerous than water, — when protected with a small 
device. 

Safety-exits, which open automatically on contact 
with a person's body ; devices for protecting punches 
and presses; safety-scaffolding; and protection for 
life at sea; respirators, for use in mine disasters; to- 
gether with innumerable machines, models and pho- 
tographs, form a collection of intense interest even 
to the ordinary observer and of incalculable value 



68 



to manufacturers in general. For at present, annu- 
ally in the United States, over five hundred thou- 
sand men are being wiped out from the ranks of 
the wage-earners, — a loss to the cash wealth in the 
country of two hundred and fifty million a year! 

And so it is, that this museum is fast becoming 
the protecting bulwark at the top of America's in- 
dustrial precipice. It is heading the momentous 
change w^hich is sweeping so rapidly over the coun- 
try at large — the change from inadequate and costly 
Compensation to the cheaper and more humane Pre- 
vention. 




Residence of J. P. Morgan 
36th Street and Madison Avenue 

69 




JO 



Murray's 

A myriad many-colored lights; glowing, reflected 
again and yet again, deep-set in a sea of mirrors; the 
soft splash of a tumbling fountain which bursts from 
beneath the feet of a marble goddess; the subdued 
hum of soft laughter mingled with the tinkle of 
silver and crystal and under all the voice of the 
singing, wailing violins — this is Murray's ! 

Entering the " Roman Garden " directly from 
the street we are translated, as if by Mahomet's 
carpet, from the prosaic influence of Times Square 
to the luxurious, indolent atmosphere of Rome at 
the zenith of the Caesars. 

The scheme of decoration produces an outdoor 
effect, which is heightened by a blue sky, twinkling 
with electric stars, and overswept by moving arti- 
ficial clouds. 

Around the rooms, behind columned panels, have 
been painted views in keeping with the style of 
decoration and which lend an enchanting sense of 
perspective to the scene. IVIany of these are of the 
renowned White collection and go far towards up- 
holding that remarkably artistic tout ensemble, 
w^hich, from the entrance to the roof-garden, has 
made Murray's famous as far as the Pacific Slope. 



71 



Sherry's 

Every name carries with it some association. 

Sherry's, to the New Yorker, has long, among 
other things, meant especially that place where the 
fashionable bride-to-be may entertain her friends, 
either at dinner or in the afternoon over a cup of 
tea, while continually past the spacious w^indows, 
flows the ever-changing kaleidoscope of the Avenue. 

Here, in the evening, under the soft lights, may 
be seen many fair women and noted men, for from 
farewell bachelor suppers of the Smart Set, to the 
exclusive Patriarch Ball, many different note- 
worthy entertainments have given Sherry's the 
reputation it now bears of being, perhaps more than 
any other place, the favorite resort of the elite. 



72 



Delmonico's 

When " Delmonico and Brothers " opened a cof- 
fee, cake and confectionery shop in the year eighteen 
hundred and twenty-eight at Number Twenty-three 
William Street, " they and the female members of 
their family dispensed coffee, liquor, pates and con- 
fections." Undoubtedly, they little dreamed of such 
an organization as was later to spring from this 
single small room. 

When, in eighteen hundred and forty-two John 
Delmonico, then the head of the house, passed 
away, his family had printed in a local paper this 
unique notice, so filled with the atmosphere of sev- 
enty years ago. 

" A CARD : The widow, brother and nephew 
Lorenzo of the late much respected John Delmon- 
ico tender their heartfelt thanks to the friends, 
benevolent societies and Northern Liberty Fire En- 
gine Company, who accompanied his remains to his 
last home. The establishment will be re-opened 
to-day, under the same firm of Delmonico Brothers, 
and no pains of the bereft family will be spared to 
give general satisfaction. Restaurant, bar-room, 
and private dinners. Number Two South William 
Street; furnished rooms Number Seventy-six Broad 
Street, as usual." 

And so it has, — but evidently always a little 
better than " usual " ! For from " dispensing bon- 
bons, coffee and liquor " it has risen gradually to be 
" Delmonico's " — the most famous restaurant in ex- 
istence to-day! 

73 



Ritz-Carlton 

While it could hardly be said that the phrase 
" one finds one's warmest welcome at the inn " 
would ever apply to any part of such a tremendous 
organization as the Ritz-Carlton hotel-chain, yet 
strangely enough, for all its modernity, this very 
feeling has been here in part preserved. 

True, the superb appointments of the halls and 
dining rooms, with their artistic reflected-lighting 
effects, conjure up very different visions from the 
gooseberry pie and rare roast beef which made 
famous the inns of Hawthorne's and Dickens' time. 

There are travelers who know fine hotels the 
world over and yet will stay in none which does 
not bear the crest of the Ritz-Carlton, whether 
they happen to be in New York or London, Madrid 
or St. Petersburg. 



74 




7S 




iimym 




Plaza 
76 



The Plaza 

The Merchant Princes of mediaeval Venice, with 
their open-handed patronage of art, could hardly 
boast of higher attainments in interior architecture, 
than the modern hotel-palaces for which New York 
is noted. 

Like Ashley House in London and the Madeleine 
in Paris, the Plaza is in possession of a situation 
which will never retrograde, no matter where fol- 
lowing decades may carry the city's limits, for it 
stands at the barrier of Central Park, — the broad 
expanse of green trees and sparkling lakes which 
stretches three miles Northward from its door. 

It is hard to conceive of an hotel, so immense as 
to require a complete silversmith, upholstery plant 
and corps of mattress makers within its walls. 

Yet for all its sixteen million dollar building and 
countless servants, the Plaza has always retained 
that indescribable something which brings its guests 
back year after year. 

Perhaps it is the sheer physical beauty of its fit- 
tings as in the famous tea room, with its Patio-like 
spaces and dome of softly tinted glass; its column- 
ade of Fleur de Peche marble and golden-bronze 
columns. Or then, again, it may be the charm of 
the music on the terrace-gardens — such music as 
may be only purchased for the sum of sixty thou- 
sand dollars a year! 

But whatever the reason, nothing can dim the fact 
that the Plaza has rightly earned for itself the name 
of a wonderful and magnificent hotel. 

17 



^: ! 



^ '''-l ') 




78 



Central Park 

The March to Victory Is ever an entrancing sub- 
ject, but perhaps never more so than In St. Gau- 
dens' masterpiece, under the shadows of which one 
steps within the magic eight hundred and forty acres 
of Central Park. 

It Is at Its best early on a spring morning, — so 
early as to create the feeling that It belongs with 
all Its freshness to one human alone. Then, the 
sheep are out with their little lambs; the squirrels 
seem more tame, and gaze In friendly fashion ; w^hlle 
the white swans In their stately splendor have al- 
ready established title to the lakes. Myriad sweet- 
voiced birds hold council up In the foliage, for this Is 
the chosen resting place of winged wanderers as they 
pursue their way North and South within the year. 

Many of the trees have been brought from under 
foreign skies, to be planted here by distinguished vis- 
itors. 

But when Cleopatra made her needles, four thou- 
sand years ago, she little thought that one would be 
taken from the Temple of the Sun, lost at sea, and 
found again, to stand at the Temple of Art in a 
New World, where soon, among its other treas- 
ures. It Is hoped to find Rembrandt's half-million 
dollar Mill. 

All through the Park, sometimes half-hidden 
amidst the trees, stand guardian statues of those 
patriots who have served the republic well, while 
at night the Harlem Meer recalls King Arthur's 
legends, quivering light-reflections In the lakes, 
dream-palaces of old. 

79 




8o 



Fire Department 

Up in the telegraph room at headquarters, an 
officer's terse report is coming in over the tele- 
phone to be put on record, — though it is but seven 
minutes since the first gong was struck, — " Ten- 
sixty-five, First Avenue, — Sub-basement, — Two 
Companies" and that is all! A man holds his 
finger on a chart for a moment while he makes a 
few notations and the quick scratching of his pen 
is distinctly audible in the uncertain pause, before 
the swift, steady menace of the alarm breaks in 
again. 

Headquarters has been known to receive more 
than one hundred and fifty calls in one day, which 
is a higher number — except for some great disaster 
— than has been rung up in any other fire depart- 
ment ever organized. 

It is known that New York City spends seven 
and one half million dollars every year putting out 
thirteen thousand fires, but much of this undoubt- 
edly is paid for being ready to put out untold more, 
which possibly might have occurred. And it is just 
this point of being ready, which has contributed per- 
haps more than anything else to making the New 
York Fire Department, with its one hundred and 
sixty engines, sixty-five hook and ladder companies, 
seven fire boats, and training school, what it is to- 
day — the most efficient on the globe. 



The American Museum of 
Natural History 

What the " Zoo " is to the Londoner, this Mu- 
seum of Natural History is to the dweller in New 
York. He may w^ell be proud, for in its possession 
are many specimens w^hich can be seen nowhere else. 

Neither expense nor trouble is spared in sending 
expeditions of scientific men to all quarters of the 
globe, to study, and collect new specimens; while 
citizens of the republic also donate objects which 
they acquire in every country. So it happens, that, 
among other interesting things, one finds here, 
Peary's sledge which reached the Pole ; the animals 
Roosevelt shot at the equator; the Tiffany collec- 
tion of gems; Meteorites fallen from among the 
stars to be found and brought home out of the 
Northland ; butterflies, so beautiful as to almost 
make one believe they were captured by a magic net 
in Fairyland, and that miraculous substance called 
Radium, whose powders are not yet even understood. 

Primitive peoples, from almost all climes and all 
ages, are resuscitated in their natural surroundings. 
The prehistoric and those who have perished since 
their contact with civilization, — Aztecs and Cllff- 
Dwellers; Incas from Peru, and Cannibals from the 
Land of Fire. 

But It Is the skeleton of the Dinosaur, hanging 
In the main hall, which Is always the center of 
interest. Being the only one In existence, men have 
traveled some ten thousand miles merely to gaze 
upon the figure of this monster creature, which 
ruled upon earth ten millions of years ago. 
82 















rV 



H 



t,^ "^--' '--^ ■ J 



83 




The Speedway. Washington Heights 
84 




Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument 
Riverside Drive 



85 



JiaBI«toSiL.uJiulffi!, 




Riverside Drive 



86 



Riverside Drive 

What La Cornichi is to the old world, Riverside 
is to the new. 

But the beauties of Riverside are not easy things 
to see, for across the Hudson lie the Palisades, — 
the Palisades that will never grow old, while sun- 
light and shadow play their many fancies among 
the castled battlements and towers. 

The individual character of the drive is hardly 
paralleled by any of the world's most famous ave- 
nues, for even though it is faced with some of the 
handsomest residences in America, still, at many 
places the woods have been left undisturbed in their 
native charm. 

A temple, sometime to be the greatest ever built, 
stands close upon its path, and nearby is Columbia 
College which in seventeen hundred and sixty- 
four was granted to " The City of New York in 
America " by King George the Third. 

Two tombs, and only two, are given honor upon 
this parkway. They stand near together upon the 
bluf¥, and each, with a touch of noble dignity, 
carries its separate message to the world. 

Upon the first, which has stood here more than a 
hundred years, there reads the simple words ** To 
an amiable child — aged five." 

And on the second, the words of him who, when 
still in the flush of a victory, which had welded 
fifty million people, could only say, 

" Let us have peace! " 



87 




.^ " ^ 



88 




College of the City of New York 




St. John The Divine 

on 

Cathedral Heights 



90 



Churches of New York 

Despite America's reputation for commerciaHsm, 
her principal city might ahnost be called a City of 
Churches, — a town w^here it is easily possible for 
one to attend both morning and afternoon services 
every day for a year and yet never set foot twice in 
the same building! 

About fifty years after the advent of the Pil- 
grims, Old Trinity was built. It stands at the 
head of Wall Street on what is undoubtedly the 
most valuable piece of Church land in the world, 
and many a time have its sweet bells rung out the 
old and in the new-born year. 

Further up town, Grace Church, with its open- 
air pulpit, its lawns and shrubbery and its atmos- 
phere of peaceful quiet, suggests somehow, even in 
the roar of the traffic along Broadway, the placid 
tranquillity of old England. 

But the list might be extended almost without 
end, from the enormous St. Patrick's which in pur- 
ity of st3de and beauty of material is hardly sur- 
passed by any in the world, down to the " Little 
Church Around the Corner," with its vine covered 
walls, its Ij^ch-gate and drinking fountain. 

Many churches, stately and beautiful, has New 
York. But it is this Little Church Around the 
Corner which perhaps lies nearest of all to the 
hearts of the people, for ever since it came into 
existence, it has been the refuge of the stricken and 
the wearied, the homeless and oppressed. 




wmm 



Little Church Around the Corner 
29th Street and Fifth Avenue 



92 




Bronx Park 

" — Where winds the Bronx!" for what other 
cities have a river, w^hich rises, flows and empties, 
within their gates? 

Upon the four thousand acres of this great 
breathing space of New York, where is intended 
room for all the millions still to come within her 
borders, one may do many things. 

There is a river to row upon; a magnificent golf 
course; the Sound to swim in; woods to walk 
among; or the Botanical and Zoological Gardens to 
visit. 

And eons ago a rocklng-boulder of some thirty 
tons, was left in this natural park to be a plaything 
of Man w^hen the Great-Ice departed. 



93 




94 



Coney Island 

" Come! — see-e the big show — big show! Only 
five cents! — half a dime! — the twentieth part of a 
dollar! Step right up! — men, women and little 
children! See-e dreadful Emo, the Turtle-Boy! 
Writhing, twisting, turning, all the times! — Cap- 
tured in the wilds of Africa I 

What childhood memories does not the place re- 
call, with its indescribable sound of blaring bands 
and booming drums; shrill-voiced venders and 
shouting " barkers " over the steady murmur of 
laughing crowds. 

"Soda! Cider! Sas'parilla — all y' wan'er 
drink fer fi-ive cents! " 

A wheezy, gurgling hand-organ is trying to make 
itself heard, while the monkey in its little red jacket 
and bells, crouches half-defiantly upon its perch. 
From a-far off comes the shrieking joy of children 
on the shute-the-shutes and the smell of new-made 
candy is everywhere. 

Above is the warm sky and time seems made to 
spend with lavish hand, for the same old spirit of 
adventure is in the air, which used to thrill at cir- 
cus time! 



95 



Navy Yard 

When Universal peace shall come to rule, un- 
doubtedly this birthplace of olden time " Ships of 
the Line," shall pass away. But always by the 
Wallabout there will remain the marble censer from 
the hand of Macmonnies, for it symbolizes the 
resting place of those who perished on the Jersey 
— the prison-hulk of the Revolution. 

At present, in the Basin, lie sturdy transports; 
slender, venomous " destroyers " ; submarines and 
torpedo-boats — the fighting machines that guard a 
nation's honor. 

Trophies of the prowess of the Navy are every- 
where. Among them, mortars and captured guns; 
fragments of shells and historical curiosities. 

But it is the old wooden frigate Verjnont, which 
seems to embody the atmosphere of departed con- 
flict. Its great yellow bulk is housed over, and 
moored for the last time; its fighting days gone by, 
— for it has seen the game played out. Once, it 
shook under the thunder of smoking guns while 
its decks ran slippery with blood. Yet now, still 
faithful, it serves with the rest of this station as a 
place where men may live in peace and learn the 
art of war. 



96 




Looking Across the River 



97 



A Trip Up the Hudson 

Why America hstens with complacency whem 
her Hudson is called the American Rhine, is hard 
to understand. For, from the great city by the 
bay, " singing like a forest of stone in the breath 
of the Atlantic," far up to the Old Crow's Nest, 
near which Washington Irving has thrown a mystic 
thrall, it needs no Lorelei to enhance its ever- 
changing charms. 

The same sheer Palisades, at which Hudson mar- 
veled from his tiny *' Half-Moon," as he pushed 
sturdily Northward towards the goal of his ambi- 
tion, are there today; Indian Head still looks down 
upon the river; Storm King beckons to the thun- 
der clouds, as they did in sixteen nine. 

" Its morning and evening reaches are like the 
still lakes of a dream! Yet no river is so lordly 
in its bearing — none flows in such state to the 
sea"! 



98 



"The Royal and Ancient" 

One used to be told that all good Americans were 
to visit Paris when they died. But now it has come 
to pass that all good golfers are promised a visit to 
New York hejore they die ! 

In all directions, lie some of the most noted links 
of the country. The nearest, perhaps, is in Van 
Cortlandt Park, which is so accessible as easily to 
permit of a round before dinner. Slightly farther 
out of town lies the Montclair Golf Club, having 
in addition to its fine course, perhaps, the most re- 
markable view of anywhere about. 

Mention might be made of the Oakland, on Long 
Island, with its hills and almost impossible gullies; 
the easier and more beautiful Briarcliff overlooking 
the Hudson, and the Garden City Link, — that 
'* maker of experts," — near which Travis and 
Alexander Smith have their homes. 

Then too, not to be forgotten, is the Nassau 
Golf Club at Glen Cove with its springy turf and 
velvety greens; the up-and-down concealed-hole 
course at Fox Hills on Staten Island, where is 
found the dreadful " Hell's Kitchen "; and on the 
slope of the Orange Mountains the Baltusrol of 
Short Hills, New Jersey, a difficult, sporty course 
where from a beautiful club-house may be had a 
fine outlook upon the surrounding country. 

There is also the Apaw^anis, a long, narrow and 
difficult eighteen-hole course, which is known to 
try severely the caliber of any amateur. 



99 



But he who can run up even the most miserable 
score upon the famous National of Long Island, 
may consider himself skilled indeed. Neither time, 
trouble nor expense has been spared in making this 
the hardest, as well as the most original course, to 
be found anywhere. For here, in every green, is 
found an exact copy of the difficult hole in each of 
the eighteen remarkable courses of Europe. 



Electrical New York 




The New York High Pressure 
Water System 

There is probably no more impressive sight in 
the every-day life of New York than that of on? 
of its monster glittering fire-fighters dashing along 
an avenue drawn by a trio of handsome plunging 
horses, belching forth smoke and leaving in its 
wake a glowing trail of embers, while all traffic 
halts and flat-dwellers rush to their windows. 

This picturesque method of fire-fighting is now 
becoming extinct and in its place is the modern effi- 
cient high-pressure system: in fact it is the present 
purpose of the Fire Department eventually to dis- 
card all portable pumping engines and to rely en- 
tirely upon high pressure. 

The power necessary to drive these pumps of 

lOI 



heretofore unheard of capacity is electrical and is 
supplied by The New York Edison Company at 
6,600 volts from Waterside Station. 

The high pressure zone on Manhattan Island is 
bounded by the Hudson River on the West ; Tw^enty- 
third Street on the North ; Broadway to Fourteenth 
Street, Fourth Avenue and Bowery on the East; 
and Chambers Street on the South. There are 
two pumping stations, one located near the Ganse- 
voort Market on the North River, the other on the 
corner of Oliver and South Streets, near the East 
River, both being outside of the district of high 
risk which they were built to protect. 

Both of the pumping stations have a capacity of 
15,000 gallons per minute, aggregating for both 
43,000,000 gallons per day. This amount is equal 
to two-thirds of the total quantity of fresh water 
used by the Borough of Manhattan for fire ex- 
tinguishing purposes during the year 1903. Each 
station contains five pumping units, consisting of 
Allis-Chalmers multi-stage, centrifugal pumps, each 
driven by an Allis-Chalmers eight-hundred-horse- 
power induction motor. 

All of the pumps are capable of delivering 3,000 
gallons per minute, against a discharge pressure of 
300 pounds per square inch when operating at 750 
revolutions per minute. The controllers and motors 
are so designed that they can be brought up from a 
standstill to full speed in approximately thirty sec- 
onds, while the high-pressure system will reach 
300 pounds pressure within one minute from start- 
ing the pumps. 



There are high-pressure hydrants within 400 feet 
of any building in the danger zone, and there are 
enough hydrants so that sixt)^ streams of 500 gal- 
lons per minute can be concentrated on a block, 
with a length of hose not exceeding 400 to 500 
feet. 

It is easy to comprehend what a dreadful dis- 
aster would result were this high-pressure system to 
be suspended for any period of time when seriously 
needed. In order to offset the possibility of such a 
catastrophe The New York Edison Company has 
taken every precaution known to science and skill 
to fortify its service against trouble, while in its 
contract with the city it agrees to forfeit $500.00 
per minute for any interruption of its service of 
over three minutes at the pumping stations. 




103 




104 



Broadway at Night 

If, at any time since the beginning of history, 
Commerce has been touched with the magic wand 
of Romance, it is when *' Broadway is a-blaze under 
the stars." 

Far reaching, intricate campaigns of publicity are 
now mapped out and executed, by high-salaried spe- 
cialists, in much the same manner that generals lay 
their plans before manoeuvering into battle. 

Every penny of the appropriations, some of which 
often soar near the million mark, is spent only with 
full knowledge of the exact effect it will have upon 
the public mind, — and pocket book. It presents the 
last and most fascinating aspect of psychology car- 
ried to its fullest development. 

Literally, some ten years ago, night was com- 
pletely driven from a large section of Broadw^ay, — 
probably never to return. 




The New Custom House 



The changeful lights throw a glamour over the 
faces in the hurrying crowds, — the crowds that the 
men, who are spending fortunes in advertising, are 
trying to reach. Faces in joy, in sorrow and in 
pain; and faces that Death has traced his finger 
upon, for here there is every tjpe of civilization — 
the Froth and the Dregs rub elbows. 

Over all, a perpetual brilliance reigns, for no 
sooner do the first shadows of evening attempt to re- 
capture their own, than countless electric signs, of 
every hue and description, spring into being. 

A huge eagle, with a fluttering ribbon caught in 
his beak, begins to flap on his nightly journey 
towards a five-foot bottle of beer; a kitten, to tangle 
and untangle herself in a spool of well-known silk. 
And soon, far skyward, down the dazzling thor- 
oughfare, a chariot race begins, — the Great White 
Way is a-stir again ! 




Central Park, Looking toward Columbus Circle 
1 06 



The Edison Electric Illumi- 
nating Company of Brooklyn 

Brooklyn, the descendant of the old Dutch burgh 
of Breukelen, with its quaint Dutch traditions and 
multitude of churches and homes, is the home of 
one of the five largest lighting companies in the 
country. The Brooklyn Edison Company. Since it 
was organized in 1888 the population it supplies 
has increased from 600,000 to 1,700,000, and all 
the while the Company has developed and extended 
in even greater proportion. 

The Brooklyn Edison Company supplies a fan- 
shaped territory seventy-seven square miles in area. 
At the apex of the imaginary fan is Brooklyn Bridge 
and at its zenith is Coney Island. On January 
1st, 1890, the Company's load w^as 6,600 fifty-watt 
equivalents and on January ist, 191 1, 2,050,000 
fifty-watt equivalents, the capacity of its two gen- 
erating stations being 50,000 kilowatts. The busi- 
ness runs along the usual lines, except that The 
Brooklyn Edison Company has been more fortunate 
than others in having been able to develop a tre- 
mendous load at Coney Island which fills in the 
Summer " valley," so that the July and December 
peaks are nearly the same, a condition which exists 
in probably no other central station. 

Thus It happens that the annual peak does not 
occur In the two or three weeks prior to Christmas, 
but in September, when the great Coney Island 
Alardl Gras trade and the load due to the beginning 



[07 



of the city season cross. This peak is still higher 
than the Christmas holiday peak. Coney Island has 
the most massive show of decorative lighting of any 
amusement resort in the world. It is the original 
example of the use of light as the chief attraction 
and has been imitated the world over, bringing busi- 
ness to thousands of central stations throughout 
the country. 

The Brooklyn Edison Company under the lead- 
ership of its president, Mr. Anthony N. Brady, has 
gained prominence in the electric lighting fraternity 
of late for its pioneer work in the employee profit- 
sharing scheme. It was also one of the first com- 
panies to take up the company section work for 
the National Electric Light Association, and has 
been active in that organization for a number of 
years. 




Madison Square Park. The Flatiron and Fifth A\enue Buildings 



io8 




Central Park 



New York and Queens Electric 
Light and Power Company 

A tract of land a mile wide and extending from 
City Hall, New York, to the steps of the Capitol 
at Albany is an area equal to that served by The 
New York and Queens Electric Light and Power 
Company. In this Company's territory could be 
placed Manhattan, Brooklyn and half of the Bronx. 
It extends from the East River to Jamaica Bay and 
from the Brooklyn boundary to Long Island Sound. 

This great area was once composed of number- 
less little independent municipalities, which in 1897 
were consolidated and became a part of Greater 
New York. The existing lighting company was 
organized in 1900 and represents a consolidation of 
more than a dozen smaller companies. 

The district is one of the most cosmopolitan any- 
w^here outside of the metropolis itself. Within it 
109 



are the magnificent residences of the very wealth5% 
the modest homes of the middle class, and the hum- 
ble dwellings of the very poor. There are the great 
factories where thousands are employed, as well as 
small factories of every description. The power and 
street lighting loads are the largest. On the latter 
is one of the biggest systems of series incandescent 
street lighting in the country. 

Owing to the vastness of the territory covered by 
this lighting company there is necessarily a tre- 
mendous investment in cable, poles, wires, etc. 
During the year 1910 there w^ere erected 2,200 new 
poles, 82 tons or 1,500,000 feet of copper wires 
were strung, and 150,000 feet of cable were laid. 
All of this was simply additional to the existing in- 
stallation at that time, the total capacity of the gen- 
erating station being 7,500 kilowatts. 




City Hall Park. The World Dome in the Background 



IIO 



Flatbush Gas Company 

Back in the good old days, now hardly to be con- 
ceived from the rapid changes making us alive with 
wonderment, when the old town of Flatbush w^as 
quite isolated from Breukelen, the inhabitants 
thought well of the old tallow dip made by the 
thrifty housewife, and only with some misgiving 
passed on from this primitive method to the more 
practical kerosene oil lamp. This was indeed an 
awakening, but a still bolder step was taken in 1864 
when such prominent representatives of the com- 
munity as John A. Lott, John Lefferts, John J. 
Vanderbilt, Henry Wall, Homer L. Bartlett and 
Abraham Lott formed The Flatbush Gas Com- 
pany. 

These gentlemen saw that progression was lead- 
ing them to the time when to be without their own 
gas, electric and water plants meant that they were 
not giving their children the benefits of enhanced 
values of real estate by the introduction of such 
commodities, and so they acted. Previous to 1894 
The Flatbush Gas Company manufactured nothing 
but gas, but in that year an electric generating station 
was built. For a long time the current was used only 
for street lighting, but in the last ten y^ears resi- 
dential lighting has had a continuous growth due 
mainly to the large number of fine types of homes 
that have been erected in this exclusive section. 
The capacity of the generating station is rated at 
4,500 kilowatts. 



In 1636 a sturdy little band of voyagers imbued 
with the traditions of Old Holland, their mother 
country, selected " Midwout," now Flatbush, as the 
ideal place for their homes on the new continent. 
Midwout was the most central of the '* Five Dutch 
Towns " and was early made the county seat of 
Kings County. The spirit of the early settlers still 
proves true of the enterprising men and women of 
today who live amid the attractive environments of 
Flatbush and its stimulating force is felt in the 
varied social and religious activities of the one-time 
Dutch Village. 

Queens Borough Gas and 
Electric Company 

A territory eighteen miles long by about a mile 
and a half w^ide, a large part of which was sand 
dunes and marsh lands less than twenty-five years 
ago, is that served by the Queens Borough Gas and 
Electric Company of Far Rockaway. Part of this 
is the beach property of the Rockaways, where a 
great Summer business is done, while the Long 
Island towns in the western part of Nassau County 
are included in the area. 

Twenty-five years ago Rockaway Beach was un- 
heard of, except as a fishing or clam digging place, 
and the towns on the adjacent mainland were not 
known to fame. In those days, the " natives " 
reached the city only after a tedious journey by 
stage to the town of Jamaica, where they boarded 
the trains of the Long Island Railroad. With the 
extention of the railroad lines to the beaches, began 
112 




"3 



the boom of the resorts, and now the\^ rank with the 
most popular of New York's watering places. 

Electricity was first used in the late eighties, with 
hardly enough customers to pay the expenses of 
the generating plant. In the Summer of 19 lO there 
were in use 3,070 meters, more than double those 
in use at the same season five years ago. The 
generating plant of the Company is at Far Rocka- 
way, with sub-stations at Rockaway Park and Lyn- 
brook. Its equipment consists of two 300 kilowatt 
generators, one 600, one 1,500 and a 2,500 kilowatt 
generator which has just been installed to meet this 
year's demand. There are eighty-five miles of pole 
line. On the beach properties where it has been 
necessary to use oil barrels, the poles are set in the 
sand. More than seventy-five percent of the gas 
mains are laid below the high water mark. 

Richmond Light and Railroad 
C o m p a n y 

The Richmond Light and Railroad Company, 
established in August, 1902, is the result of a com- 
bination of two other companies, the Staten Island 
Lighting Company and the Staten Island Railroad 
Company, the former of which in its day was a 
union of two or three smaller concerns. 

This Company has from the start furnished cur- 
rent for the whole Island, or a territory of seventy- 
five square miles with a population of 85,000. Much 
of the country is rural, comprising miles of unset- 
tled farm land. 

114 



Use of electricity, however, is pretty general, 
many of the farm houses even being connected. 
There is one instance of an entire dairy being 
operated by electricity, with electric milkers, separa- 
tors, and so forth. All the ship yards with one ex- 
ception, and nearly all the factories, together with 
the ferry and municipal buildings, are supplied by 
the Richmond Light and Railroad Company. 

During the last five years there has been an in- 
crease in the lighting of 300%. Practically every 
new^ house is wired for electricity. The railroad 
end of the business, comprising thirty-one miles of 
road, shows a slight increase; and although a steam 
road runs on a parallel line, the electrics get their 
share of the trade. In Summer there is enough 
travel to keep both exceedingly busy. This Com- 
pany operates in addition the Midland Railroad 
with a mileage of 29. 

The total power generated for both light and 
railroad during the past year was 13,658,769 kilo- 
watts. The Summer load is carried for South 
Beach and a portion for ]\Iidland which has a small 
plant of its own. 

The United Electric Light and 
Power Company 

The United Electric Light and Power Company 
was the first electric lighting company to extend its 
service north of Fifty-ninth street and at present 
is the only one serving the territory north of 135th 
street. This Company supplies alternating current 



exclusively within the Borough of Manhattan from 
its underground mains widely distributed from the 
Battery to the Harlem Ship Canal. The service is 
of a frequency of 60 cycles, single phase and two- 
phase in character. 

The three-phase, 7500 volt generating apparatus 
is located at Waterside Stations No. i and No. 2 
and transmitted over three-conductor 250,000 c. m. 
cables to the two sub-stations, w^here transformation 
is made from three-phase to two-phase, three-w4re, 
and to the distributing voltage of 2100 volts across 
each phase (3000 volts across the outer conductors). 

The sub-stations are located at 208-210 Elizabeth 
street, covering the lower section of the city, and 
at 519 West 146th street, supplying the central and 
upper sections. These two sub-stations are similar 
in most respects except as to capacity. Transforma- 
tion is by air blast, transformer sets, and motor 
generators. 

The general offices are located at 11 70 Broadway, 
with branch offices and display rooms at 138 Hamil- 
ton Place, near 143rd street. The maximum load 
of the Company is in excess of 12,000 kilowatts, 
with a connected load of 940,000 50-watt equiva- 
lents, of which power installations, both single and 
two-phase, approximate 15,000 horse-power, cover- 
ing a wide field of operation. More than 500 ele- 
vators are operated from the two-phase power 
mains. 

The service of the Company covers about 150 
miles of streets, and occupies 320 miles of duct in 
the subway system of The Consolidated Telegraph 



and Electrical Subway Company, with a total of 
920 miles of conductor of all classes. 

The northern part of the territory supplied by 
The United Electric Light and Power Company is 
fraught with historic interest. Back in Revolu- 
tionary times it was the scene of a hot conflict after- 
ward known as the Battle of Harlem. General 
Washington at different times defended certain 
strategic positions on this rugged part of Manhat- 
tan Island. One of the old forts, Fort Washington, 
still stands, bearing the name of its founder. The 
famous Jumel Mansion is located at 155th street. 



The Bronx Gas and Electric 
Company 

The Bronx Gas and Electric Company covers a 
territory which has developed with unusual rapidity. 
When the Company was organized in 1893 with an 
oflice in a story and a half wooden shack in the site 
of the present attractive oflice building, it was to 
light the old township of Westchester. And the 
work was accomplished by means of a few arc 
lamps. 

In 1895 Westchester became a part of Greater 
New York. A trolley was put through in 1900 and 
the subway in 1903, with the result that what was 
then a thinly settled country township has grown 
into a prosperous suburb. 

The Company's territory comprises 16 square 
miles, with a population of some 30,000 ; it was only 
4,000 back in 1893. By far the greater part of the 
117 



district is residential, nearly 9,070 commuting into 
the City. This population is largely transient, 
houses usually being rented only for the season, and 
in the case of ownership, the party remaining until 
the property is sold. There are some few factories 
and store yards and some mill works, for which this 
Company supplies light and power. 

The power generated during the past year was 
2,558,000 kilowatts. This marks an increase in 
business of something over 5,000% since the Com- 
pany was established. The biggest seasons were 
1905-6, the years, it w^ill be remembered, of the 
great coal strike. During this time there was an 
increase in the use of various electrical heating and 
cooking apparatus, which has to a large extent fallen 
ofiF since. The new transit facilities doubtless had a 
great deal to do with the surprising growth of the 
business through that period. How^ever, the use has 
continued on the increase, the gain of the past year 
having been 15%. 



118 




119 



TheYonkers Electric Light and 
Power Company 

Should Frederick Philipse, the first lord of the 
Manor of Philipsburgh, return to his ancient home, 
the Manor House of Yonkers, what a transforma- 
tion would meet his ejes! Instead of approaching 
his stately residence from the river and disembark- 
ing from a sailing craft, he would now, perhaps, 
run up from his office in Wall street via the elec- 
trically equipped lines of the New York Central 
and Hudson River Railroad. 

Two hundred years of progress and development 
have changed Yonkers from a mere hamlet, h. col- 
lection of the log cabins of pioneers, into a progres- 
sive manufacturing city of 85,000 inhabitants. The 
old manor house, erected in the early part of the 
Eighteenth Century still stands and has received 
within its walls many prominent men. It is a long 
way from the chaise and post to the modern con- 
vej'ances, but now in the very door yard of his 
lordship's manor house pass trolley cars and auto- 
mobiles. 

A number of years ago this aristocratic old man- 
sion descended from its exclusive atmosphere and 
entered upon a political career, becoming the office 
of the mayor and other city officials. In this ca- 
pacity it served until the recent opening of a new 
and imposing City Hall, which is located on a site 
commanding a beautiful view of the Hudson River 
and Palisades. 

Since 1887, when the Yonkers Light and Power 
Company opened shops, wonderful advances have 
120 



been made in the use of electric current. Today 
there are burning within the city 100,000 incandes- 
cent lamps. Electric current is furnished to the 
small consumer as well as to the occupants of the 
magnificent residences further back on the beauti- 
ful hills, where besides having current for light and 
power, it is used extensively for heating and cook- 
ing. Curiously enough electric household apparatus 
was widely used in these handsome old houses, be- 
fore it came into favor among the ]\Ianhattanites. 




Looking East Along ^id Street from Times Square 



1 




122 



The Westchester Lighting 
Company 

The Westchester Lighting Company, with its 
subsidiary companies, supplies all of Westchester 
County with the exception of Yonkers, with elec- 
tricity and gas. Westchester County covers some 
296,320 acres and has a population of approximately 
200,000. The executive offices of the Westchester 
Lighting Company are at Mount Vernon, but 
branches have been established in a number of geo- 
graphical centres and the general distribution work 
is taken care of from these several points. To 
facilitate the handling of business, display rooms 
are located in such centres as Yonkers, Mount 
Vernon, New Rochelle, Port Chester, White Plains, 
Tarrytown and Mount Kisco. 

The county is developing rapidly and is a most 
promising field for the lighting industry. The prin- 
cipal electric generating station is situated at New 
Rochelle. It is a w^aterside station, located on Echo 
Bay of Long Island Sound. The capacity of this 
plant is about 7,600 kilowatts and from it current 
is transmitted to sub-stations at Mount Vernon, 
Port Chester, White Plains, Tarrytown and Mount 
Kisco. Mount Kisco and Tarrytown have emerg- 
ency steam plants with a total capacity of about 
700 kilowatts. 

Current is generated entirely by steam, there be- 
ing no available water power for such a purpose in 
the County. The Mount Kisco sub-station is tied 
in w^ith the Ossining power-house of the Northern 
123 



Westchester Lighting Company, a subsidiary of the 
Westchester Company, by means of a high tension 
transmission line, and can be supplied either from 
New Rochelle or Ossining, or in case of emergency 
can generate its own current. This applies also to 
the Tarrytown sub-station. 

Aside from the Peekskill and Ossining equip- 
ment, the distribution system consists of 1,700 miles 
of wire, 17,750 poles and about 2,500 transformers. 
The street lighting system carries about 1,000 arc 
and 4,500 tungsten lamps. 

The Company is furnishing power for the White 
Plains, Mamaroneck and Tarrytown Trolley Com- 
pany, and for the Pittsburg Contracting Company, 
which is now engaged in building a section of the 
new Catskill Aqueduct near White Plains. Other 
" long hour users " on the lines are several of the 
iron foundries in the City of Port Chester, these 
making a practically even load throughout the day 
in the Port Chester district. The district taken as 
a whole is a residential one. On the Company's 
books December 31st, 19 10, were about 9,000 
meters with a connected lighting load of 20,000 
kilowatts, approximately 2.2 kilowatts per con- 
sumer. 



124 




-q 


i: 






3 




O 


tiO 


c/: 


c 


to 


s 



o -^ 



o ^ 







126 



Waterside 
— Where is generated that mysterious force 
which serves to make a city light and clean and liv- 
able. 

Within sound of the hoarse, dry moan of two 
gigantic fourteen thousand kilowatt steam turbines, 
how very far away seems the little Pearl Street Sta- 
tion of eighteen eighty-two, which, with its his- 
torical " Jumbos " formed the base for *' almost fif- 
teen miles of mains and feeders! " 

The present Edison System, covering twenty-one 
square miles, supplies current on a three-phase sys- 
tem to over ninety-one thousand customers through 
countless, delicately adjusted meters. And the coal 
consumption alone, of a plant enormous enough to 
furnish this amount of power, runs into a total of 
two thousand tons a day. 

Considering such figures as these, it is easily per- 
ceived why Waterside with a capacity of five hun- 
dred thousand horse-power, — supplying connections 
to nearly five million lamps, — is today the largest of 
its kind in the world. 

Even against the background of twentieth cen- 
tury understanding, how portentous of an un- 
dreamed era are the three copper strands, no thicker 
than a man's wrist, which leave here to do their 
part in lighting a city of close on five million souls. 
In addition, the Edison System embraces thirty- 
three sub-stations, six branch offices and a working 
force of five thousand, who make over five million 
telephone calls a year in conducting the business of 
the Company. 

127 



Probably no form of modern engineering meets 
more of the difficult and unexpected as this of il- 
luminating a big centre of industry, where the size 
of " load " must necessarily always remain an un- 
controllable factor. 

In recent illustration of this is the afternoon of 
March second, when occurred a sudden flurry of 
snow. In the growing dark throughout the city, 
people simply snapped a button and never gave the 
matter a second thought. But at Waterside, on 
the signal of hooting whistles, men jumped in swift 
and practiced haste to their stations, — for the slen- 
der finger of the indicator was rising at the rate of 
fifty thousand kilowatts in five minutes! 

Never for a single moment, did the lights grow 
dim — which was one of the rewards born of the 
years of unresting, vigilant alertness these men ex- 
ert, who work steadfast always confronted with 
strange, as yet unheard of problems and still, for all 
a thousand difficulties whose boast it rightly is, that 
since eighteen eighty-three, except for the brief 
time taken in the erection of a new station, the cur- 
rent has never left the mains! 



128 



The Western Union Telegraph 
Company 



" What hath God wrought? " 

These were the words flashed by Morse from 
Baltimore to Washington that wonderful day back 
in 1844, over the first telegraph line ever con- 
structed. Perhaps the mind of the great inventor 
as he sat at the instrument and ticked ofi the now 
famous first message, was piercing the veil of the 
future, and before his eyes came the momentary 
vision of the transcendent glories of another cen- 
tury clustering about his invention. Were not 
these words the inspired utterance of a great 
dreamer, as to his ears sounded the roar and rumble 
of the transmission of millions of messages a day? 
Now that we can view in retrospection the 66 years 
of marvelous progress of the telegraph Industry It 
would seem that this were so. 

During the seven years that followed the con- 
struction of the first line more than fifty different 
telegraph companies sprang up In various parts of 
the United States. In 1851, however, began the 
history of The Western Union Telegraph Com- 
pany, when articles of association of The New York 
and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Com- 
pany — the original name of the Company — were 
filed at Albany. Local consolidations of the various 
companies In the East followed, and one by one, by 
lease, by purchase, or by exchange of stock, the 
129 



companies In the West came into or were absorbed 
by the new company, which by an act of the New 
York Legislature in 1856 had its name changed 
from The New York and Mississippi Valley Print- 
ing Telegraph Company to The Western Union 
Telegraph Company, indicating the union of the 
Western lines into one compact system. 

In 1 86 1, the next important step was taken, 
when a line was constructed across the plains con- 
necting the Eastern and Western systems. So rapid 
was the Company's growth in the years that fol- 
lowed, that in the year 1876 there were 18,729,567 
messages transmitted over its wires. In 19 10 the 
number of messages sent over the 1,429,049 miles 
of Western Union wire was 75,135,405, while the 
Company's receipts for the same year were $33,- 
889,202.93. 




The Sheridan Statue, Central Park 
130 



Perhaps the most interesting if not the most im- 
portant event of recent years in The Western 
Union was the introduction of the " night letter " 
and later of the " day letter." The night letter, 
which has become immensely popular, was insti- 
tuted to give the public the benefit of the night 
hours, when business on the lines is light, by send- 
ing a fifty-w^ord message at the usual ten-word day 
rate, subject to delivery in the morning. The day 
letter can be sent at a lower rate than the regular 
message, but the message is given the precedence 
over the day letter. This gives the Company the 
opportunity of filling in the valleys between its 
peaks with day letters, keeping its vast force and 
equipment always busy. 

The New York office of the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, at 195 Broadway, is with one 
exception, the largest telegraph office in the world. 





.0' --.. --,4^-' -^ "'^ 


■ ^wf^uMf/^ 





Broadway, Looking North from Times Square 
131 




Looking South from Times Square 



^i 



Looking North from Times Square 
132 



The Postal Telegraph-Cable 
Company 

The thousands of miles of wire which comprise 
the great system of The Postal Telegraph-Cable 
Company in the United States have for their fo- 
cusing point the large and adequately equipped 
operating room of the Company in the Postal Tele- 
graph Building at 253 Broadway, opposite City 
Hall, New York. Here they connect with the At- 
lantic system of the Commercial Cable Company, 
and radiating from New York, reach every place 
of importance in the United States, making con- 
nection with the Commercial Pacific Cable at San 
Francisco, and at Montreal with the extensive sys- 
tem of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with which 
a close working arrangement is maintained. 

The trunk line wires are brought into New York 
from the West under the Hudson River by sub- 
aqueous cables, and thence by underground cables 
to a terminal room in the basement of the Postal 
Telegraph building. The wires from the North 
and East are brought under the Harlem River to 
the same point, and after passing through the neces- 
sarv protective devices all wires reach the operating 
room on the twelfth floor, where they are connected 
directly to the switchboards. 

Each switchboard is arranged to contain fifty 
line wires, w^hich is the maximum number that it is 
possible for two chief operators to supervise. The 
switchboards are connected w^ith the various ex- 
changes and branch offices by underground cables. 
133 



Directly in front of the switchboards are located 
the automatic repeaters which perform the function 
of forwarding through from one w^ire to another, 
or from branch offices through to a distant city, 
without the intervention of receiving or sending 
operators. 

The Postal Telegraph Building was erected 
specially for telegraph purposes, and its conveniences 
and arrangements are unexcelled. The wires are 
operated exclusively by the American Morse sys- 
tem which is upon the simplex, duplex or quadru- 
plex plan, according to the exigencies of the traffic. 
Chemical batteries, which at one tune were exclu- 
sively employed for furnishing current for the 
operation of main wires, have, during the last 
twenty-five years, been almost entirely replaced by 
motor generators and transformers. Forty-volt 
currents are used for all local purposes and for short 
branch wires in cities. The higher potentials are 
used for the operation of the apparatus upon the 
main wires, 200 volts being used for very long, high 
resistance single circuits, and also for duplexes, 
while 375 volts is used exclusively in the operation 
of quadruplexes. 

Direct circuits are worked daily from New York 
to San Francisco, a distance of 3,250 miles; to New 
Orleans, a distance of 1,334 miles; to St. Louis, a 
distance of 1,048 miles; to Atlanta, a distance of 
882 miles; to Chicago, a distance of 900 miles; and 
to many other points. 



134 




135 



"Cortland , — T welve Thousand!" 

When the late E. H. Harriman once complained 
that he could not get good service over a certain 
long-distance line, an expert was sent to inquire 
into the trouble. On his return, he reported that 
nothing could be done, as Harriman wanted the 
impossible. 

" Well," said the chief, calmly, " if he wants the 
impossible, I guess we'll have to give it to him ! " 

This illustrates the telephone engineer's point of 
view — a point of view it is given to very few to un- 
derstand, for looking at the question from the out- 
side, there is little or nothing to suggest the baffling 
problems, and heavy responsibilities of his profes- 
sion. Nothing, except a familiar little desk-instru- 
ment that can be held in one hand, — but which 
happens to be the sensitive end of a vast system, 
embodying some million-one-hundred-thousand- 
miles of underground wire! 

Fifty-four exchanges; five thousand men; six 
thousand girls, making two million connections a 
day. Cables, aerials, submarine wires, batteries and 
intricate switchboards! Could anyone have im- 
agined, that a business of such staggering magnitude 
was to spring up almost over-night in a single city! 

In thirty-five years, it has grown with such 
strides, — at the rate of almost one hundred tele- 
phones a day, — that at present, the New York City 
Telephone Company alone, is connecting as many 
instruments as there are in all Great Britain and 
Germany combined, for nowhere else in the world 
136 



Is there such a metallic nerve-system as among the 
skyscrapers of Manhattan. 

Several hundred experts are continually at work 
on unwonted problems, and at the present moment 
these people have strung a line from New York City 
to Denver, trying to make It carry conversation ! 
It Is more than a two-thousand-mile job with a 
corps of experts through nine states; another im- 
possibility, of course, — but presently It will be done, 
and then this same crew will push the wire on out 
to 'Frisco. 

They are reaching steadil> towards truth. In the 
great question "What is Electricity?" — and some 
day they will solve it, just as once before they 
solved by a marvel of wire-wizardry, that uncanny 
question of the " phantom circuit," whereon three 
messages may travel along two pairs of wires. 

Always against them, has been pitted the im- 
possible and unknowable, yet they have never wav- 
ered In this business of theirs, — the transporting 
along tiny copper wires a force that is swifter than 
light, and feebler than a sunbeam. 



137 




138 



The Interborough Rapid Transit 
Company 

The largest subway system in the world, with its 
hundreds of miles of track, tunnels under two rivers, 
and other marvellous engineering feats, together 
with all of the elevated roads now in operation on 
Manhattan Island and in the Borough of the Bronx 
— this is the great Interborough Rapid Transit 
Company of New York. 

Perhaps the most interesting part of the Inter- 
borough system is the subway. This is one of the 
foremost examples of present-day skill and ingenu- 
ity, and has demonstrated that underground rail- 
roads can be built beneath the congested streets of 
the city, making possible in the near future a com- 
prehensive system of sub-surface transportation ex- 
tending throughout the wide territory of Greater 
New York. 

The difficulties confronting the constructors of 
the subway were well nigh appalling. Towering 
buildings along the streets had to be considered, 
the streets themselves were already occupied with a 
complicated network of sewers, water and gas mains, 
electric cable conduits, electric surface railw^ay con- 
duits, telegraph and power conduits, and vaults 
from the abutting buildings extended under the 
streets. 

The completed subway is a tribute to the master 
mind of Its builder the late John B. McDonald. 
For a five-cent fare It Is possible to ride from Brook- 
lyn to either Van Cortlandt or Bronx Park or to 
139 



any Intermediate point. There is a separate express 
service, with its own tracks, and the stations are so 
arranged that passengers may pass from local trains 
to express trains, and vice versa, without delay and 
without payment of additional fare. 

Special precautions have been taken to prevent a 
failure of the electric power and the consequent 
delays of traffic. An electro-pneumatic block signal 
system has been devised which excels any previous 
system, and is unique in its mechanism. 

The third rail for conveying the electric current 
is covered, so as to prevent injury to passengers and 
employees from contact. Special emergency and 
fire alarm signal systems are installed throughout 
the length of the road. At a few stations, where 
the road is not near the surface, escalators and ele- 
vators are provided. 

The powder house for the subway is located at 
Fifty-ninth street and the North River and has a 
capacity of approximately 100,000 horse-power. It 
covers an area of 190,792 square feet. The ca- 
pacity of the coal bunkers at this station is 18,000 
tons. The boiler room contains seventy-tw^o boilers 
arranged in pairs or batteries. The power for the 
operation of elevated trains Is generated at Sev- 
enty-fifth street and the East River. The area 
there Is 114,340 square feet, while Its capacity Is 
64,000 horse-powder. 



140 




•a B 

Oh « 

u u 
« 

SI 

t<H 



141 



The Brooklyn Rapid Transit 

It was once said of an ancient imperial cit}' that 
all roads lead to Rome; with equal verit_v, at least 
in the Summer season, this epigram might be varied 
to read: ''All trolley cars run to Conej^ Island." 
As a place of fun and frolic, mirth and laughter, a 
rapid, strenuous, dashing, whirling, hurly-burly of 
noise, brilliant, hetrogeneous, unconventional, emi- 
nently human, crow^ded by day and night, it re- 
sponds to the elemental call of man for diversion. 

Out of sixteen routes from Brooklyn and Man- 
hattan to Coney Island, thirteen are owned and 
operated by The Brooklyn Rapid Transit. Over 
this baker's dozen of lines some twelve hundred six- 
car trains are operated in a single busy Summer's 
day — in addition to a sixty-second headway of trol- 
ley cars on six surface car routes. 

It is no unusual task for The Brooklyn Rapid 
Transit to carry a quarter of a million persons on 
the ten mile trip down to Coney Island In the morn- 
ing and early afternoon — then to bring this whole 
cltyfuU home at nightfall. The Culver terminal, 
at Coney Island, Is the largest railroad terminal In 
the world which has but three months of real serv- 
ice throughout the year. 

To operate this station requires unusual drill and 
discipline on the part of the men of The Brooklyn 
Rapid Transit. Three men are constantly on duty 
In the Interlocking tower that protects the elevated 
train operation In the terminal — a small regiment 
guards the platforms, exits and entrances — and all 
'142 



of these men have brought both skill and experience 
to the execution of their difficult tasks. 

To carry this great tide of pleasure-seeking hu- 
manity on its flow to Coney Island and to Brighton, 
to bring it safely home upon the ebb is a master task 
for the power resources of The Brooklyn Rapid 
Transit. This task has almost equalled the Com- 
pany's record load — carrying homebound Christmas 
shoppers, in addition to heating and lighting the cars 
in which they rode — a load that took 144,000 
horse-power in a single hour of a December even- 
ing. To meet the power necessities of summertime 
at Coney Island, a transforming station is main- 
tained as part of the equipment of Culver terminal. 
Four 1,000 k. w. units form the mechanical equip- 
ment of this modern station. 

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit, with its 568 miles 
of surface and elevated lines is probably the largest 
single city railroad in the world. The fact that the 
longest of these lines is less than fourteen miles only 
goes to show the remarkable density of the system. 
Over these lines 3,000 surface and elevated cars are 
sent each day — the total mileage of Brooklyn surface 
cars in the course of twenty-fours is equal to a dis- 
tance six times around the world at the equator. 



143 



Public S e r V i c"'e E*l e ct r i c Com- 
•i li 

^pany of New Jersey 

No single electric lighting company serves a 
larger territory than does Public Service Electric 
Company of New Jersey. This corporation, whose 
home office is in Newark, serves an area embracing 
twelve counties and one hundred and fifty-seven 
municipalities, in which live more than two million 
people, nearly four-fifths of the population of the 
entire State. 

Public Service Electric Company was incorpo- 
rated in July, 1 910, taking over all the electrical 
business of Public Service Corporation, which came 
Into existence In 1903. It controlled almost all 
the electric, gas and street railway business of the 
northern and central parts of the State. 

The first electric lighting In New Jersey war. 
done by the Newark Electric Light and Power 
Company In 1884, two years after the company's 
organization. 

The territory of this early company was confined 
to three blocks on Broad Street and about seven on 
Market Street, where some of the business men were 
Induced to use current for lighting their premises. 

The growth of the electrical business is shown 
by comparative figures of 1903 and December 31, 
1 9 10. In 1903 there were fourteen generating 
stations, now there are twenty-eight; there were 
156 generators with a capacity of 40,075 kilowatts, 
now there are 189 generators with a capacity of 
124,158 kilowatts. In 1903 there were produced 
144 



129,614,180 kilowatt hours; in 1910, 288,740,147 
kilowatt hours. There were 47 miles of transmis- 
sion lines and 25 miles of conduits in 1903, while 
now there are 374 miles of transmission lines and 
79 miles of conduits. The total commercial load 
connected at the earlier date was 710,000 50-watt 
equivalents, as against 2,613,236 50-watt equiva- 
lents in 1910. 




Looking South from Times Tower 



14s 



\-^. 



^JT 











South Beach, Staten Island 



146 
















A Terrace View in Yonkers 



H7 







-r_?' ^'21 



m\ 



Tne Palisades at Yonkcr? 



148 







-^. 



i«s^**^!r 



'w -^^: 



Dredging Boat on the Hudson, yonk( 



149 










The Hall of Fame 



I .^^^ 




ffi 



-ii 



I 



Ci 



-r^?^-^€" 



r^^ 



^^1 



tei^' 




v^^^ 



t'5^- r- 



Astoria 






if 



i-> 



r^ ^#! 



./ , .: .war 









^ .^^ 



aW^ 



--*-?* 



Canarsie 



M^ ^^^ i 








I 








'j,^^fy^0^^^^S'^'^ ^.r. ,-.^^- 



^^'l' 



Index 



PAGE 



Liberty Enlightening the World — Boats leave from the 

Battery every hour I 

Ellis Island Permit may be obtained from Commissioner 

of Immigration 8 

Governor's Island Permit may be obtained from Com- 
manding Officer — boats leave from the Battery every half 

hour • 1 

South Street Subway to South Ferry 12 

Battery Subway to South Ferry 1 4 

Fraunces Tavern loi Broad Street — near Pearl. Sub- 
way to Bowling Green, and walk South-East ... 1 5 

Curb Exchange Broad Street, below Wall Street . . I 9 

Stock Exchange Broad Street near Wall .... 21 

Wall Street Subway to Wall and Broadway. ... 23 

Singer Building — 149 Broadway — Subway either to Wall 

or Fulton Streets 2.5 

World Building Opposite City Hall 27 

The Post Office Below City Hall 29 

Ye Old Tavern Duane Street — near Hudson Street. . 3 2 

Brooklyn Bridge — Subway to Brooklyn Bridge Station . 3 3 
Chinatown — Mott, Doyers and Pell Streets. Best '-eached 

from Chatham Square 35 

The Bowery — Chatham Square to Astor Place ... 37 
Push- Cart Town — Rivington and nearby cross-streets — 

reached by Grand Street surface cars 39 

Little Hungary — 257 East Houston Street — Take 14th 

Street Crosstown Car to Essex Street 44 

Francesca's — 64 West loth Street — Take Sixth Avenue 

Cars 47 

Washington Arch 49 

Scheffel Halle 17th Street and 3rd Avenue . ... 5 I 

Castle Cave 7th Avenue — near 25th Street . ... 53 



Metropolitan Tower — 23rd Street and Madison Avenue — 

Subway Local to 23rd Street 55 

The Martha Washington Hotel — 29th Street — near 

Madison Avenue. Subway local to 28th Street ... 5° 

Pennsylvania Terminal — 7th to 9th Avenues — 31st to 

33rd Streets. Take 34th Street Crosstown Car ... 6 I 

A Great Retail Business — GimbePs — At the corner of 

Broadway, 6th Avenue and 33rd Street 63 

Rector's Broadway and 43rd Street — Times Square . . 65 

Canfield's Bronze Door — 33 West 33rd Street — between 

5th and 6th Avenues 67 

•'And Now Let Us Conserve Human Life" — 

Safety Museum Engineering Building — 29 West 39th 

Street 68 

Murray's 42nd Street, West of 7th Avenue — Subway 

local to Times Square 7 ^ 

Sherry's — South-West Corner 5th Avenue and 44th Street — 

Take 5th Avenue 'bus "] 1 

Delmonico's North-East Corner 5th Avenue and 44th 

Street — Take 5th Avenue 'bus 73 

The RitZ Carleton Hotel Madison Avenue and 46th 

Street — Madison Avenue Cars 74 

The Plaza Hotel 5th Avenue and 59th Street — 59th 

Street Crosstown Cars, or 5th Avenue 'bus. ... ']'] 

Central Park 59th Street — from 5th to 8th Avenues . 79 

Fire Department Headquarters — 156 East 67th Street — 

near Third Avenue 8 1 

Natural History Museum — Central Park West and 77th 
Street — open every week day and Sunday afternoon. Take 
Subway to 79th Street, or 8th Avenue surface cars . . 82 

Riverside Drive — 'Bus runs from 72nd Street to iioth . 87 

Churches of New York — St. John's Cathedral — iioth 

Street and Morningside Park 9 1 



Bronx Park— Lenox and West Farms Subway Express to 

i8oth Street 93 

Coney Island — Take Elevated from Brooklyn Bridge . . 95 

Navy Yard — Take Flushing Avenue Car at Brooklyn Bridge 96 
Trip Up Hudson — Day boats go to Poughkeepsie, West 

Point, and Newburg 98 

** The Royal and Ancient " — Golf Grounds in the vicinity 

of New York 99 

The High Pressure Pumping System . . . . 10 1 

Broadway at Night 105 

The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of 

Brooklyn 107 

The New York and Queens Electric Light and 

Power Company 109 

The Flatbush Gas Company i 1 1 

The Queens Borough Gas and Electric Company 

of Far Rockaway 112 

The Richmond Light and Railroad Company . . 114 

The LTnited Electric Light and Power Company . 115 

The Bronx Gas and Electric Company . . . 117 

The Yonkers Electric Light and Power Company i 20 

The Westchester Lighting Company . . . . 123 

** Waterside" 127 

The Western Union Telegraph Company . . . i 29 

The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company. . . . 133 

The New York Telephone Company .... 136 

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company . . 139 

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company . . . 142 

Public Service Electric Company of New Jersey . 144 



WAY 29 1911 



)ne copy del. to Cat. Div. 
^AY 29 19tr 



■^.t. '""■ .^^c"^'* "<;, 



.-% 



4, ,^~ 



/^^-km:, 









^OO^ 



0^ "^cK 



.-^^ J^ 







> .0-' -O^^^ *' s « ■ ^\ 






..'^' 



■<, -^^ 



'^^ # 




,/ ^ . ^:w^:^,v 



^ ■■■■ '^""°^-^^-;^^-^ 



'. ^-e. 



3 » . k ■ A*- , - » ^ -J-,, 









8 k 






<3 



0^' 






"^, 









% 



,*!-■ 






::''^.<^' :L 



=^ '-=5^, 






Deacidilied using We Bookkeaper process. 
S"lra«2ing Agenl: Magnes.um Ox.de 
Treatment Date: iQQft 

■^^"'^^"pHESERVATION I bO HNOLOGIEb. L.P. 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



>-. A 






,H -n* 



>'^i^- ." a: 






-V 






-^ -,^ ^f]p^. 






-^. 



.^ .0- 



./ 






.-A 






c^ ^ \ ^!l;'':ili#^ 



,\' 









•^oo'^ 









.V 






.H -t;.. 



^-<.;^-^ 



.0 0^ 






^V 






F 



'^ <» V -Ni 






;%: 









^^ v"" 



.^^ '% 



* 3 S 






C\' 



/y 



'^. ,<^^ 



